Today’s Comic> Young Justice #23

No joke; this is how you make a great cover!

Young Justice #23

DC Comics (February, 2013)

On the moon, the Justice League and Superboy attempt to break free from Kylstar, who thinks they’re just weapons. In Metropolis, Beast Boy and Bumblebee are forced to drop bodyguard duty to help Black Lightning deal with the source of the force dome while Batgirl and Plastic Man (the latter on the outside of the dome) meet Superboy’s “brother”. In the sky, Martian Manhunter and the Flash succeed in distracting our third guest so YJ’s Alpha squad can get in…but at what cost?

What they got right: I complain about how Simon Furman, in his Transformers stories, loves to have numerous plots going on at the same time. The difference here is that the events are all related to each other and part of the same plot rather than multiple events like some soap opera. (Maybe Furman is a big Eastenders fan or something; I’ve never seen the show.) The action is well done as is the art, and Kylstar is a great threat to the heavy hitters of the Justice League.

What they got wrong: They keep jumping back to the “year zero” events (Dick’s birthday party and Clark trying to get to know Superboy without the “Superman” baggage) that I hope has some kind of payoff because it’s rather distracting.

Recommendation: Of all the current superhero comics DC is putting out, this is the worst one to end. This series really should be in your collection if it isn’t already.

There’s no caption bit here because I want to point out just the way this scene is set up. You have Superboy’s clone popping up, which is my official nomination. But I also like the three other panels on this page, going from clone to predecessor; in this case Patch to Superboy to Superman. It’s a nice bit of layout work.

Related articles

• Today’s Comic> Young Justice #21
• Today’s Comic> Young Justice #22
• ‘Young Justice’ to conclude in February (digitalspy.co.uk)